Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Primary Foods

Happy Tuesday! It’s the post you’ve all been waiting for-Primary Foods! I eluded to primary foods a couple of times already in the blog but have not described it in full. As you know, in my practice, I take a holistic look at my clients’ lives. Although diet is an important component of our health, I believe that our lifestyle is “primary” and even more important than your diet. This is mind blowing stuff, people! At first, the idea may seem a little out of whack with what the mainstream diets preach. Ninety-nine point nine percent of them focus strictly on dietary changes. But you cannot expect to make lasting changes to your diet without addressing lifestyle, both physical and emotional.

I’m not the first nor will I be the last person to state that your emotional state is really important in achieving health goals and preventing disease. There is correlation of happier people being healthier people and unhappier people being less healthy. However, there are no studies that say being healthy will make you happier. This is why I view lifestyle to be more important than diet. Being satisfied with your lifestyle will have a domino effect on your health.

Breaking it down, the four components of primary foods are your career, physical activity, relationships, and spirituality. I will definitely be covering these areas more in depth, but in the meantime, here is a quick overview.

Career: We spend many hours in a day, week and most of our lives working. More often than not, we spend more time developing our “careers” than our relationships, bodies and minds. It is so important to have a job that is fulfilling to you whether that is monetarily, ethically, or mentally.

Physical activity: This is the only component of lifestyle that mainstream dieting promotes yet people still do not successfully integrate physical activity into their lives. I work with clients to participate in activities that they like and can fit into their lifestyle which makes it more likely that they will stick with it.

Relationships: We are social beings who thrive on relationships. It’s a primal need. There were incidents in the 19th century at orphanages where babies were dying, not from infection or lack of food, but from lack of touch. Now I can’t guarantee that I’ll get you hugs and kisses but I do work with my clients to examine their family, friend and romantic relationships. We examine where those relationships are and where they want them to be.

Spirituality: Now, don’t be turned off by the term spirituality. It can mean your relationship with God, but to me, it really means your relationship with yourself and how you see yourself in relation to the world. Believing in a greater being is only a component of that. I work with clients to believe in themselves and seek a spiritual practice that works best for them. That may encompass working on self esteem or better understanding their relationship with God.

This was a lot to take in, but don’t worry, I will be referring to it often and elaborating on in future posts. In the mean time, spend some time tonight to examine these aspects of your life. Are they where you think they should be? Want to talk about it? Email me for a free hour health consultation.

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The material provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. They are not intended as health advice nor replacement of recommendations/diagnosis from your Physician, Nutritionist, or Health Professional Advisor. I do not claim to be an expert nor are my statements a diagnosis or prescription for you to follow a practice. If you use the information in this file without the approval of a health professional, you prescribe for yourself, which remains your constitutional right, but the author assumes no responsibility..